Damn Straight, Your Highness

Chapter 6 - Stupid Projects

I looked across the classroom with unsure eyes at my new partner. The ever so lovely Cole Walker.

Miss Woodlie, our flamboyant Visual Arts teacher who I had met a few days ago thought it'd be fun to start off the year with a self discovery and personal image project in pairs. We were to get to know our partner over the coming weeks then create two drawings, the first to be the way we see them visually and the next to be the way we see them in our heads mentally.

I, for one, was totally against the entire idea as was the rest of the class judging by their dramatic groans. The being paired up with Cole part didn't bother me all that much, it was more doing the actual task with Cole. But as Emma says; He is a fellow world class flirt just on a lesser scale than Lucas and down right hot. And I couldn't argue with that.

His green eyes flickered over to me as Miss Woodlie ordered us to go sit with our partners. The grating of seats filled the classroom as people swarmed all over the place finding their partners but I stayed in my seat by the window. Cole was already coming this way before I even thought about getting up.

"Uh, Anna right?" I turned to him, pulling my gaze away from the leafless trees outside. His eyes were electrifying and his lips curled up into a smirk.

"That's me." I sighed slouching over the desk as he pulled out the chair beside me.

"I'm Cole." He smirked, copying my slouched position.

"I want you to each write down 5 questions that you want to know about each other then continue with more questions as you work throughout the project." Miss Woodlie interrupted my deathly glare at Cole.

I glanced down at my blank page attempting to brainstorm ideas for questions. Nothing came to mind at all so I glanced over to Coles page, and found it to be symmetrical to mine. So he hadn't thought of anything either. Looks like we were in the same boat.

I sighed staring back down at the page, waiting for something to pop out. I didn't want to ask the typical questions like when's your birthday? How old are you? What's your favourite colour? Or whatever but they were seeming like the only things I had.

"Having some trouble Anna and Cole?" Miss Woodlie whisked over to our table, enquiring.

I smiled sheepishly as she looked at both of our pages and found nothing.

"How about..." She thought for a moment. "What career are your parents in? Or maybe do you have any siblings? Things like that." She waved her hand around suggesting with a bright smile, then swiftly moved to the other side of the room.

I looked at Cole, our eyes meeting embarrassingly.

"So... Uh... What career are your parents in?" Cole tried turning to me with a weird face.

What career are my parents in? What career are my parents in?! I panicked and desperately tried to think of something. My eyes flickered across the room, searching for something, anything but nothing came to mind. He watched me intently, making me feel inferior. I fidgeted in my seat, uncomfortably.

"They..." I began, my heart beating in my ears. What do I tell him? 'Oh hey yeah my parents are rulers of a country,' Because that would totally go down well. "They... Uh.. Both work in the same careers actually." I dragged on, trying to buy time to come up with something. "They're psychologists." I blurted. He nodded in response, seeming to have believed me.

I blankly blinked, amazed that the lie worked. I had gotten away with lying, which was a rarity. Lying was never my forte, especially in this case with an incredibly intimidating guy who could crack me at any second.

I quickly smiled, realising that I had been blankly staring at him. "So what about you?"

The rapid chatter around me drowned out and faded. I watched his green eyes darken as he began to speak.

"My Dad's the CEO of a company way in town." He looked away distantly answering. His eyes met back up to mine as he leaned in closer to me. My eyes widened as I looked at him alarmingly but he began talking, ignoring my uncomfortable expression.

"So when and who was your first kiss?"

My eyes widened and I cocked my head to the side. "And you need to know that because?"

"Just answer the question." 

The only time I had ever been kissed was one of the most awful times of my life. My parents had attempted to set me up with Prince George of Esnia, a country that lie on the boarder of Aystra. Both our parents pressured us to kiss despite our obvious uncomfortableness with the fact that we'd only known each other as friends. But still the awkward kiss happened, making it my first and worst kiss ever.

"I was 15 and he was a Pri-"I began as my heart pounded against my chest when I realised. My eyes flickered away from his intimidating ones. "Pri-pretty..uh.. guy." I felt red rise in my cheeks beginning to burn.

"He was a-" He laughed then continued," - a pretty guy?" His face was screwed up with a mix of confusion and amusement. Mostly amusement.

I turned away to face the front of the class to hide my embarrassment.

"People do say that you know." I defended, mumbling.

"Sure they do." He chuckled leaning over the desk.

My eyes flickered over to the clock that only showed the time slowly ticking away. I grunted, unable to remember the time the bell went. I hadn't gotten used to the times here.

I sighed. I figured I might as well spend whatever time left talking to him, there was nothing else to do.

"Alright then, what about you?" I looked to him on my side waiting for a reply.

He leaned back into his chair casually as if he had told the story a hundred times. His smirk couldn't help but find its way onto his chiseled face as he began to speak.

"Stacy Barkmen, Second Grade."

I laughed lightly. "Your first kiss was in the second grade? Oh my god." I snorted. "And you even remember her name?"

His lips curled up into a smirk as his eyes lit up and he started laughing with me.

"Hey, it was special. Can't forget a girl when she was your first kiss." He shrugged as his laughing calmed.

"Well everybody, I'm incredibly happy with the way you are all socialising with your partners. Keep it up!" Miss Woodlie spoke across the classroom as the bell rung.

"So I'll come over to yours?" Cole asked as I collected my books into my arms. I looked at him confused. "You know, to work on this art assignment."

Then it occurred to me. We would have to do this assignment outside of class too. "Oh, right." I glanced away debating whether it would be okay to have him over. It was a risk, that was for sure. There's a chance he would stumble across something's he shouldn't that could jeopardise everything. But I didn't have a reason to say no.

Students filed out of the classroom leaving us two alone. I looked back to him. "Yeah, come round at about 4 I guess."

I began to walk away hastily. I was hungry and I knew Emma was looking for me in the Cafeteria.

"Hey, wait up!" He called out from behind me. I stopped and peered over my shoulder waiting for him to catch up. "I don't know where your house is."

"Oh, my bad." I laughed as we maneuvered though crowds of bustling students. I slid out my phone from my jeans pocket and handed it to him. "Put your number in. I'll text the address to you later." He nodded as typed away at my phone.

I didn't tell him my address directly because I couldn't remember it. Having only lived there for roughly three weeks I couldn't remember the street name or number. Plus my memory sucks anyway.

So hopefully it wasn't going to be much of a big deal to Adam that he would come over this afternoon. I hoped to God nothing would go wrong but despite all that, I couldn't ignore the gnawing feeling growing in my stomach.